I was actually very tempted to write a post about syndicated blogs today. cdfrey essentially said what I would have, but I probably would have been more elaborate and possibly less considerate. This is actually a great article topic, although I'm on my way to bed and I'm too lazy to compose right now.

I find myself pre-scanning the recent blogs for those that aren't syndicated. That's about 10%, which certainly saves me a lot of reading. Syndication just tells me "what I have to say is so important that many people on many sites will read it, but I don't have time to go to all of those sites and read what other people post." That might not be the truth, and indeed some people do generate more valuable entries that are of interest to a wide community. It might be better to have a "most-recently syndicated" list separate from the "I actually signed in, making it possible for me to read others' writing" list.

Many of the syndicated blogs provide useful information, but I don't think they belong in the same section as those originating from this site. I can't think of any other site where an RSS feed gets interleaved with original content as if it were the same.

Kevin